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Cuba´s Legna Verdecia Beats North Korea´s Kye Sun Hui

SYDNEY, September 17 -- North Korea's Olympic judo champion Kye Sun Hui was supported emotionally but not successfully here today by a surprising cheerleading squad — a charter jet-load of South Koreans.

The 400 chanting, stamping, flag-waving citizens of Seoul arrived just in time to see Kye, who won gold in her 52-kilogram class at Atlanta in 1996, defeat Hillary Wolf, an American-actress-turned athlete.

Kye and Wolf, struggling on the mat at Hall Two at the Darling Harbor Convention Center, managed not to be distracted by waves of emotional applause throughout their four-minute bout.

Kye's title slipped away later in a surprise semifinal loss to Cuba's Legna Verdecia, who went on to take the Olympic judo title tonight. But the North Korean later salvaged a bronze medal.

The South Korean tourists staged a "Unite Korea" demonstration to rival the South-North amity shown when the divided peninsula's joint team marched at Friday's ceremony opening the Olympic Games. Today, their support was accompanied by drummers and included teenage girls in red miniskirts and men in traditional high-domed military hats.

The judo diplomacy could hardly be called pro-Communist, since its prime sponsor was Korea Telecom, a bastion of South Korea's vigorous capitalism.

The telephone company' executive vice-president, Seung Choon Ahn, said the Olympic tourist visit was arranged months ago as a promotion. Customers won tickets in an Internet lottery — there were 200,000 hits — to watch Koreans compete in Sydney.

"When moves for South-North unification began, we decided the Olympics was a good place to show support," Seung said. Like his compatriots, the Harvard-trained executive wore a baseball cap and T-shirt and carried a flag, all with the blue- and-white logos of a map of all Korea.

When Kye beat Wolf, and later lost to Verdecia, the cheerleading squad shouted in Korean "Well done" and `We're happy to see you." Some waved South Korean flags as well as unity logos.

Dong Jo Chang, 41, an interior designer, said although he had no relatives in North Korea, he "felt very emotional, sometimes crying" about unification. He does not practise judo and said that taekwondo, another martial art making its Olympic debut, is more popular in Korea.

"But Ms Kye is well known in the South," Dong said. "We came here straight from the plane to cheer her."

The flag-wavers now move on to support South Korea in cycling, hockey, shooting and volleyball events. But judo diplomacy has made a loud, if brief, impression on the Sydney Games.